1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a magnetic medium guiding apparatus in which the guiding load of a magnetic medium is made substantially constant so as to assure a smooth guiding of the magnetic medium.
2. Description of the Prior Art
During the past few years there has been a remarkable development in a system in which magnetic cards are used. In particular, an increasing use of such system is found in banking as a cash-card system.
Among others, there has become known and practically used a sophisticated magnetic card reading machine which performs various functions and can be incorporated into a cash dispenser, teller's machine or the like.
However, such apparatus inevitably necessitates a high cost. While a good quality machine of a highly efficient power system may include such an expensive apparatus, the cost becomes too high to be tolerable for a popular type one to which low cost is essential. This is a problem to be solved in the art.
An approach to the solution of this problem hitherto developed is a so-called hand scan system of a magnetic card reading machine. According to the system, a magnetic medium is moved by hand and the data recorded in the magnetic medium is read out. Magnetic card reading machines of this hand scan system are simple in structure and reliable in operation, and therefore they are successfully accepted in the market. The use of this type of machine is now spreading rapidly.
On the other hand, in banking the data input business at a teller's window is usually carried out manually by a clerk such by pushing a keyboard. This numerical data input business is extremely trouble-some especially when the numerical data to be put in are many and various such as including code the number of the customer, his account number and so on, and is therefore apt to lead to error in data input.
This trouble will be eliminated when a stripe of magnetic medium is labelled to a portion of a bankbook. All the data necessary for ordinary bank business such as bank code number, branch number, customer code number, his account number and the like are magnetically recorded in the magnetic medium and read out in the above described hand scan reading machine so as to put the data then read out into the associated main computer from the end machine. If the above could be realized, it would greatly contribute to a simplification of the numerical data input business and an elimination of trouble and error in data input work.
In order to attain the object, however, there is a problem to be solved which resides in the difference between a magnetic card and a magnetic bankbook in material and in thickness. A standardized magnetic card used in banking is 0.7 mm in thickness and its base is made of synthetic resin whereas a bankbook to be used as a magnetic book is usually of the thickness ranging from 1.5 to 2 mm and its base is composed of a plural number of paper sheets. In this manner, between a magnetic card and a magnetic book there is a large difference in material and in size. This means that two separate data reading units are required to read out the data recorded in the magnetic medium, one for a magnetic card and the other for a magnetic book. The overall size of apparatus necessary for this purpose becomes large accordingly and the manufacturing cost thereof also becomes very high.
Therefore, it is desired to provide a data reading apparatus which allows reading of data stored not only in a magnetic card but also in a magnetic book, employing only one single unit of apparatus. FIGS. 1(A)-(B) illustrate one example of such data reading apparatus according to the prior art which has many drawbacks and disadvantages as will be described hereinafter.
Referring now to FIG. 1, there are shown a pair of guides 40 and 41 which define a guide width 41-1 slightly larger than the thickness of a bankbook 42 (FIG. 1(A)). In the area of a magnetic head 43, there is defined a nip width 44-1 between the magnetic head and a pressing roller 44 which is slightly smaller than the thickness of a magnetic card 45 (FIG. 1(B)).
The magnetic bankbook 42 is fed in the direction of arrow 46 by hand and the fore edge 42a of the book 42 is pinched between the magnetic head 43 and the pressing roller 44. At this time point, as can be seen in the drawing of FIG. 1(A), there occurs an abrupt change in load of hand feeding of the bankbook because of the nip width 44-1 being considerably narrow as compared with the thickness of the bankbook 42. This makes the hand feed speed unstable and often leads to errors in reading the data recorded in the magnetic bankbook.
On the contrary, when the magnetic card 45 is fed in the direction of the arrow 46 by hand as shown in FIG. 1(B), the guide width 41-1 is too large as compared with the thickness of the magnetic card to such an extent that the pair of guides 40 and 41 may lose partially their effect on the magnetic card. As a result of the weakened guide effect, the fore edge 45a of the card running into the magnetic head 43 dangles in the guide channel up and down. This also makes the feeding velocity unstable and often leads to errors in reading the data stored in the magnetic card.